A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream, written in approximately 1595 or 1596, is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers. Another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. Both groups find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans and are engaged in their own domestic intrigue.

W. G. Clark; W. A. Wright (eds.) The Works of William Shakespeare, vol. 2 (Cambridge and London: Macmillan and Co., 1863)

Act I

Scene i

Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities.
- Hippolyta, l. 7

Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword,
And won thy love, doing thee injuries.
- Theseus, l. 16

To you your father should be as a god; ...
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted.
- Theseus, l. 47, to Hermia

I would my father look’d but with my eyes.
- Hermia, l. 56

For aye to be in shady cloister mew’d,
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
- Theseus, l. 71

Earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.
- Theseus, l. 76

For aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth.
- Lysander, l. 132

O, hell! to choose love by another’s eyes.
- Hermia, l. 140

Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.
- Lysander, l. 144

I swear to thee, by Cupid’s strongest bow,
By his best arrow with the golden head,
By the simplicity of Venus’ doves,
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves, ...
By all the vows that ever men have broke,
In number more than ever women spoke.
- Hermia, l. 169, to Lysander

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind;
Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgement taste;
Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste:
And therefore is love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
- Helena, l. 234

Scene ii

Quince: Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.
Bottom: A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry.
- l. 10

Masters, spread yourselves.
- Bottom, l. 14

Bottom: What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?
Quince: A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love.
- l. 18

A part to tear a cat in, to make all split.
- Bottom, l. 24

This is Ercles’ vein.
- Bottom, l. 33

Nay, faith, let not me play a woman; I have a beard coming.
- Flute, l. 40

I’ll speak in a monstrous little voice.
- Bottom, l. 45

I am slow of study.
- Snug, l. 59

That would hang us, every mother’s son.
- All, l. 69

I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you an ’twere any nightingale.
- Bottom, l. 73

A proper man, as one shall see in a summer’s day.
- Quince, l. 75

We will meet; and there we may rehearse most obscenely and courageously.
- Bottom, l. 95

Enough; hold or cut bow-strings.
- Bottom, l. 97

Act II

Scene i

Over hill, over dale,
  Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
  Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moon’s sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
In their gold coats spots you see;
  Those be rubies, fairy favours,
  In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.
Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I’ll be gone:
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.
- Fairy, l. 2

I am that merry wanderer of the night.
- Puck, l. 43

Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
- Oberon, l. 60

And never, since the middle summer’s spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb’d our sport.
- Titania, l. 82, to Oberon

The ox hath therefore stretch’d his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat; and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attain’d a beard:
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
The nine men’s morris is fill’d up with mud;
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable.
- Titania, l. 93, to Oberon

The human mortals.
- Titania, l. 101, to Oberon

The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose;
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries.
- Titania, l. 107, to Oberon

Once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song;
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid’s music.
- Oberon, l. 149

And the imperial votaress passed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before, milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
- Oberon, l. 163

I’ll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.
- Puck, l. 175

My heart
Is true as steel.
- Helena, l. 196

I am your spaniel.
- Helena, l. 203

We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
We should be woo’d, and were not made to woo.
- Helena, l. 241, to Demetrius

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows;
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine.
- Oberon, l. 249

Scene ii

You spotted snakes with double tongue.
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen.
- I Fairy, l. 9

Weaving spiders, come not here;
Hence, you long-legg’d spinners, hence!
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence.
- I Fairy, l. 20

What thou seest when thou dost wake,
Do it for thy true-love take;
Love and languish for his sake:
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
In thy eye that shall appear
When thou wakest, it is thy dear:
Wake when some vile thing is near.
- Oberon, l. 27

Night and silence.—Who is here?
- Puck, l. 70

The will of man is by his reason sway’d.
- Lysader, l. 115, to Helena

Act III

Scene i

A lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing.
- Bottom, l. 28

Snout: You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?
Bottom: Some man or other must present wall: and let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast about him, to signify wall.
- l. 58

What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here.
- Puck, l. 68

Flute: Must I speak now?
Quince: Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.
- l. 80

O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray, masters! fly, masters! Help!
- Quince, l. 95

Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art translated.
- Quince, l. 109

I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me; to fright me, if they could.
- Bottom, l. 110

And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days.
- Bottom, l. 130

Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
To have my love to bed and to arise;
And pluck the wings from painted butterflies
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.
- Titania, l. 150, bidding her attendants please Bottom.

The moon methinks looks with a watery eye;
And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,
Lamenting some enforced chastity.
- Titania, l. 183

Scene ii

How now, mad spirit!
What night-rule now about this haunted grove?
- Oberon, l. 4, to Puck

My mistress with a monster is in love.
- Puck, l. 6

There is no following her in this fierce vein.
- Demetrius, l. 82, of Hermia

I go, I go; look how I go,
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar’s bow.
- Puck, l. 100

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- Puck, l. 115

And those things do best please me,
That do befall preposterously.
- Puck, l. 120

So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted;
But yet an union in partition,
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem.
- Helena, l. 208

Hang off, thou cat, thou burr!
- Lysander, l. 360, to Hermia

Follow! nay, I’ll go with thee, cheek by jole.
- Demetrius, l. 338, to Lysander

I am amazed, and know not what to say.
- Hermia, l. 344

Cupid is a knavish lad
Thus to make poor females mad.
- Puck, l. 440

Thou painted maypole.
- Hermia, l. 296, to Helena.

She was a vixen when she went to school;
And though she be but little, she is fierce.
- Helena, l. 324, of Hermia

Night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger;
At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,
Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,
That in crossways and floods have burial,
Already to their wormy beds are gone.
- Puck, l. 379, to Oberon

Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill.
The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.
- Puck, l. 461

Act IV

Scene i

I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.
- Bottom, l. 22

I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let’s have the tongs and the bones.
- Bottom, l. 26, to Titania

I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.
- Bottom, l. 36

A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac; find out moonshine, find out moonshine.
- Bottom, l. 47

My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamour’d of an ass.
- Titania, l. 73

Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep!
- Titania, l. 80

Fairy king, attend, and mark:
I do hear the morning lark.
- Puck, l. 90

My love shall hear the music of my hounds.
- Theseus, l. 103

These things seem small and undistinguishable,
Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.
- Theseus, l. 184

It seems to me
That yet we sleep, we dream.
- Demetrius, l. 190

I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.
- Bottom, l. 203

The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.
- Bottom, l. 206

I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream: it shall be called Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom.
- Bottom, l. 210

Scene ii

Where are these lads? where are these hearts?
- Bottom, l. 24

And, most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath.
- Bottom, l. 38

Act V

Scene i

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover and the poet
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
- Theseus, l. 4

But all the story of the night told over,
And their minds transfigured so together,
More witnesseth than fancy's images,
And grows to something of great constancy;
But, howsoever, strange and admirable.
- Hippolyta, l. 23

Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have,
To wear away this long age of three hours
Between our after-supper and bed-time?
Where is our usual manager of mirth?
What revels are in hand? Is there no play,
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
- Lysander, l. 32

Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
How shall we find the concord of this discord?
- Theseus, l. 58

Hard-handed men, that work in Athens here,
Which never labour’d in their minds till now.
- Philostrate, l. 72, of the mechanicals

For never any thing can be amiss,
When simpleness and duty tender it.
- Theseus, l. 82

The true beginning of our end.
- Quince (as Prologue), l. 111

Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
He bravely broach’d his boiling bloody breast.
- Quince (as Prologue), l. 145

The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.
- Theseus, l. 210

A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience.
- Theseus, l. 224

I am a-weary of this moon: would he would change!
- Hippolyta, l. 244

All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.
- Starveling (as Moonshine), l. 250

Theseus: This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad.
Hippolyta: Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man.
- l. 280

Now am I dead,
Now am I fled;
My soul is in the sky:
Tongue, lose thy light;
Moon, take thy flight:
Now die, die, die, die, die.
- Bottom (as Pyramus), l. 293

No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse.
- Theseus, l. 345

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time.
- Theseus, l. 352

Now the hungry lion roars,
   And the wolf behowls the moon;
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
   All with weary task fordone.
Now the wasted brands do glow,
   Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,
Puts the wretch that lies in woe
   In remembrance of a shroud.
Now it is the time of night,
   That the graves, all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
   In the church-way paths to glide.
- Puck, l. 360

And we fairies, that do run ...
Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic: not a mouse
Shall disturb this hallow’d house:
I am sent with broom before,
To sweep the dust behind the door.
- Puck, l. 368

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call:
So good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.
- Puck, l. 412

Quotes about the Dream

Great is the courage and self-possession of an ass-head. Theseus would have bent in reverent awe before Titania. Bottom treats her as carelessly as if she were the wench of the next-door tapster.
- William Maginn, "Bottom, the Weaver" (Shakespeare Papers, no. 4), in Bentley’s Miscellany, vol. 2 (1837), p. 378

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